Canada’s ‘smuggler’s paradise’ under renewed scrutiny amid Trump threats

2025/01/27 Leave a comment

Of interest:

…Akwesasne is part of what law enforcement agencies call the Swanton Sector, a vast stretch of eastern Ontario, Quebec, New York State, Vermont and New Hampshire. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, this is where the majority of illegal crossings happen from Canada – and it’s been on a dramatic rise in the past two years. The agency said it had made 19,300 apprehensions of illegal immigrants in the past fiscal year, up from the average of around 1,000 just a few years ago.

Canadian border officials also say the number of people coming the other direction illegally is on the rise. Last year, CBSA officers caught almost 34,000 foreign nationals along all land crossings with the U.S. who they believed were “inadmissible,” an increase of about 30 per cent from 2023. This is in addition to the more than 1,183 asylum seekers the RCMP caught last year trying to cross into Canada by land. In response to questions from The Globe, Canadian authorities said they couldn’t immediately isolate figures for the Swanton Sector.

On Jan. 7, investigators trailed the men after receiving evidence they say warranted a traffic stop under the Excise Act, which is typically used to prevent tobacco or cannabis smuggling. Akwesasne has a long history as a funnel for both. Tax-exempt cannabis and smoke shops are everywhere on the reserve, and old tobacco factories still stand here, from the era when cigarette companies used the territory to avoid paying taxes on their products….

Source: Canada’s ‘smuggler’s paradise’ under renewed scrutiny amid Trump threats

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As border anxiety mounts, ads for smugglers in Canada helping migrants illegally cross into U.S. flourish on social media

2025/01/20 Leave a comment

Inevitable:

…“Canada to USA. Safe Reach,” the Facebook post says. “No police. Low price. Payment after reach.”

“Canada to USA. Safe Game. Cheapest in Market. 100-per-cent guarantee,” reads a post on Instagram.

Smugglers offering to help people cross the border illegally into the United States are openly advertising their services on social media. The Globe and Mail has found multiple posts from people smugglers who are promoting “safe” routes to the United States, including from Montreal and British Columbia, with some claiming there will be no police involvement or checkpoints.

Some advertisements call their work “dunki” or “donkey” services, with payment due upon arrival. The price, which is not always stated, is in one case listed as $3,500 for same-day service from Canada to the U.S., with “payment after reach.”

Other ads also tout smuggling services over the U.S.’s southern border, as well as to and from other countries….

Source: As border anxiety mounts, ads for smugglers in Canada helping migrants illegally cross into U.S. flourish on social media

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Human smuggler issued new Canadian passport after court ordered surrender of travel document 

2024/11/21 Leave a comment

Sigh, highlighting systemic coordination failure:

The federal government issued a new passport to an admitted human smuggler after he was ordered to surrender the travel document as part of court-imposed release conditions, CBC News has learned. 

The new passport was discovered in June 2023 by RCMP investigators executing a search warrant at the Montreal home of Thesingarasan Rasiah during a probe targeting an international human smuggling network that Rasiah allegedly headed, according to court records obtained by CBC News. 

At the time, Rasiah was living at home with an electronic ankle bracelet on strict conditions while awaiting sentencing on a February 2023 guilty plea to one count of breaching the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for his role in the smuggling of a Sri Lankan national from the U.S. into Canada in 2021.

Rasiah had been forced to surrender his passport to the RCMP in 2021 as part of his release conditions related to the human smuggling attempt that was intercepted by police in Cornwall, Ont., located about 120 kilometres west of Montreal along the Canada-U.S. border.

Rasiah was also forbidden from applying for any new travel documents.

Smuggling operation linked to deaths

Rasiah was charged on April 1, 2021, after he was caught in a Cornwall motel parking lot receiving a Sri Lankan national who had just been smuggled into Canada. He was sentenced to 15 months in jail in September 2023. 

He was re-arrested this past May by the RCMP on charges he led an international human smuggling organization that moved hundreds of people north and south across the Canada-U.S. border. He remains in custody.

Investigators with the Cornwall Regional Task Force — which includes officers from the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) — also linked Rasiah’s organization to the deaths of nine people on the St. Lawrence River in late March 2023. Two families — one from India, the other from Romania — drowned with a boatman in rough river waters trying to get into the U.S. 

The new passport seized by RCMP during the search of Rasiah’s home in 2023 was issued by Service Canada on April 11, 2023, less than two weeks after eight bodies were pulled from the river, according to a copy of the document filed with the Ontario Court of Justice. …

Source: Human smuggler issued new Canadian passport after court ordered surrender of travel document

Filed under Citizenship, Passports Tagged with ,